Why do you call it a weapon?

[Capt. Speirs]

Ok, here goes...Why do we call our guns a weapon? We don't call baseball bats a weapon, until it is used as one. We don't call screwdrivers a weapon, until it is used as one. So why do we call Guns a weapon? Some never intend to use their guns as weapons and until you do, it is a gun, rifle, pistol, or whatever its birth name was. I asking this because, I think non gun owners or general public would react differently if we called them rifles, pistols, shotguns, and not weapons. Just a thought, what do you think?

[Adrien]

See: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/weapon

and: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapon

If the shoe fits...

Adrien

[orb451]

Some call it a weapon, I think, because it's primary purpose is, well, that of a weapon. Can it be used for other stuff like plinking? Sure. But its primary purpose is to harm things. You can argue all day about how it can be used legally and lawfully for all these other things, but at the end of the day, the inventors of firearms didn't design them to be door stops or paper punchers. That they can be used in those capacities is just an ancillary benefit. It's a tool, it's job is primarily to inflict great harm.

Now the designers/inventors of the baseball bat, the hammer and the knife all had specific uses in mind when they made those items. They're tools too. They can be used as paper weights, in the manner they were intended or they can be used to do great harm as well, but on average, they're used to get a job done. Hitting baseballs, driving nails and cutting things respectively.

[Farquaad]

Because that's what they are?

[Peter W Bush]

because ARs, M9s, M1As, SCARs, etc. were made for one purpose- To harm human beings in the most efficient, effective way possible. Thats not what WE use them for but thats why they were designed.

[Greg-Dawg]

Because we're ninjas. Only guys in war are allowed to call their guns weapons.

[Capt. Speirs]

Because that's what they are?

[maschronic]

i call it a firearm. sometimes gun. i rarely call it a weapon.

[Vanguard]

I call a gun a weapon for the same reason that I would call a sword a weapon and not a letter opener. Their primary purpose is as a weapon. Sure, you can open cans of beef stew with a gun or a sword but that's not what they were made for. They're both weapons.

Also..."weapon" is used in the military a lot so that spills over into civilian life when guys leave the military. Try referring to an M-16 as a "gun", and not a "rifle" or "weapon", to a Marine drill instructor and see what happens.

[Maltese Falcon]

i call it a firearm. sometimes gun. i rarely call it a weapon.

Yep...I NEVER use the the words gun or weapon, always firearm.

[Czechsix]

Because that's what I was trained to call it, see Vanguard's post (yeah, it was....unpleasant that first time I called it a gun. rofl)

I think that was also the last time ahahahahahaha

[odysseus]

I don't normally call my guns a "weapon". They certainly can be used as one of course. Weapon illustrates in common use an action of offense or defense. A kitchen knife can be a weapon, a baseball bat can be a weapon, a car can be a weapon. In fact often if used as a offensive or defensive tool, I have seen those items written as "weapons".

Certainly firearms can be weapons. Most often they are carried to be that way. There is nothing wrong about that. We should not have a fear or feel that weapons are somehow malicious. It is not the gun that kills, it is the person who uses one (of anything) that does. This sort of fear falls into the nanny-state mentality of gun grabbers with misplaced fear.

[xrMike]

I use a "firearm", a "rifle", or a "pistol".

I've never had to use a "weapon" yet and hope I never do.

[alex00]

I don't think changing terminology will affect anyone's opinion of the subject. Whether we call them firearms, weapons or what-have-you, people will still object to their existence and use. Look at the other side, they no longer call it Global Warming, but refer to it as Climate Change. My opinion of the subject has not changed. They no longer call it terrorism, its Man Made Disaster.

People will always hate bullet delivery devices no matter what we call them.

[Vanguard]

We shouldn't try to dance around with vocabulary, it only makes it appear as if we're doing something wrong and are trying to mask it or cover it up. Referring to them as "Sparkle Wands" or "Happy Sticks" isn't going to change the fact that they're weapons.

I'm not saying you SHOULD call them weapons, I'm saying you shouldn't be afraid to refer to them that way. Weapons defend life and liberty and there is no shame in that.


Edit: Now that I think about it, "Happy Sticks" isn't bad. I think I'm going to use the from now on.